Lots of us know about them, heck, I think I've even seen one or two, but I've never owned one. I'd venture to guess, it's a lot like most thirty to forty year old cars, a little hard to find some parts, but generally very simple. I had an E21 320i that was bullet proof, and since it was the unloved child between the 2002 and the E30, you can pick them up dirt cheap.

Given that it's relatively light, probably has a limited slip diff, and has a good racing heritage, I wouldn't hesitate to put it on the track.

A '73 2002 was my first BMW. They are mechanically simple and easy to maintain. Rust was the biggest challenge, and required an extensive rebuild and repaint. If you don't like the performance of the little 4 cylinder engine you can always swap in something much larger.

The guy thats selling has pretty much rebuilt the whole thing with Ireland Engineering parts... suspension, big brakes, new head etc. Paint looks to be in fairly good shape and haven't seen any rust in the usual places.

He's asking 5K... and I'm thinking it might be worth it just to own a piece of history but I wanna make sure I'm not making a stupid impulse buy.

Ideally I'd like to get this out at Road Atlanta and up at Carolina Motorsports Park.

Back in the day, I had 3 of them - a 1970, '72, and a '75. The '72 was the best of them IMO, smaller bumpers, and round tail-lights. The '75 model I had never ran exactly right, due to emission controls at that time. They were light and tossable and fun to drive.

BMW has come a long way since those cars. BUT, a restored one would be a fun, weekend car. I wouldn't want it as my DD tho.